Wednesday, May 17, 2017

According to court records, HSI special agents initiated the investigation while targeting a prolific methamphetamine distribution network headed by Oriental Mafia Crips gang member Soulidao Chounlaboudy, aka “Lazy.” The probe also identified Ruben Contreras-Ramirez, aka “Tjuas,” a member of the Clairemont 13 gang, who is accused of distributing firearms and manufacturing assault-style, semi-...

Valentin Mendiola-Castaneda, 35, was transferred to the custody of Mexico’s Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) and Mexican immigration by deportation officers with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Mendiola was arrested in January by officers with ERO’s Fugitive Operations and special agents with ICE Homeland Security Investigations.

PHARR, Texas—U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations (OFO) at the Pharr International Bridge cargo facility discovered 919 pounds of alleged marijuana within a commercial trailer. “This was an outstanding seizure by our...

PHARR, Texas—U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations (OFO) at the Pharr International Bridge seized alleged cocaine valued at $313,140. “Our CBP officers’ experience and attention to detail are essential in interdicting...

ANZALDUAS, Texas—U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations (OFO) at the Anzalduas International Bridge seized alleged cocaine valued at $186,660 during an enforcement action. “Preventing these hard narcotics from reaching their...

ST. ALBANS, VT — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is reminding travelers that there will be increased traffic volumes associated with Victoria (Canada) and Memorial Day weekends beginning May 19, as well as during the busy summer travel...

“Access to higher education is more important now than ever to prepare students for the jobs of the 21st century, and these scholarships will provide much-needed opportunities for thousands of Marylanders,” said Governor Hogan. “Our administration remains committed to strengthening our higher education system by making it both accessible and affordable, ensuring Maryland remains one of the most competitive and best states in the country.”

The Howard P. Rawlings Education Excellence Awards Program (EEA) is comprised of two need-based grant programs which provide financial assistance to low income students: the Educational Assistance Grant (EA) and the Guaranteed Access Grant (GA). Both of these need-based grants are the most sought-after financial aid programs for college education funding as they do not need to be repaid. To be eligible, the student must be a Maryland resident, plan to enroll at a two-year or four-year Maryland college or university as a full-time (12+ credits per semester), degree seeking, undergraduate student.

EA grant awards take into account the expected family contribution towards the cost of tuition, books, and fees, and range anywhere from $400-$3,000. This year more than 47,000 students received EA grants.

GA grants are designed to help the neediest students by providing 100% of the student’s cost of attendance, as determined by the school’s financial aid office, or $19,000, whichever is less. This year the program awarded more than 2,200 grants to the state’s neediest students. Of the 2,200 total students awarded under the GA Grant, the number of first time recipients more than doubled totaling 1,154 compared to only 474 in the prior year.

“Education has never been more important. It is not only the single greatest driver of economic mobility, but our state’s future prosperity depends on it. For it to be accessible, it must also be affordable,” said Dr. James D. Fielder, Secretary.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the 100 days since President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Orders (EOs) regarding immigration enforcement priorities, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested more than 41,000 individuals who are either known or suspected of being in the country illegally. This reflects an increase of 37.6 percent over the same period in 2016.

Between Jan. 22 and April 29, 2017, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) deportation officers administratively arrested 41,318 individuals on civil immigration charges. Between Jan. 24 and April 30, 2016, ERO arrested 30,028.“These statistics reflect President Trump’s commitment to enforce our immigration laws fairly and across the board. ICE agents and officers have been given clear direction to focus on threats to public safety and national security, which has resulted in a substantial increase in the arrest of convicted criminal aliens. However, when we encounter others who are in the country unlawfully, we will execute our sworn duty and enforce the law. As the data demonstrates, ICE continues to execute our mission professionally and in accordance with the law, and our communities will be much safer for it,” said ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan.

Nearly 75 percent of those arrested during this period in 2017 are convicted criminals, with offenses ranging from homicide and assault to sexual abuse and drug-related charges.

The arrest of aliens at-large in the community increased by more than 50 percent, from 8,381 last year to 12,766 arrests this year during the same period.

The arrest of convicted criminal aliens climbed nearly 20 percent, from 25,786 last year to 30,473 this year.

Violent crimes such as homicide, rape, kidnapping and assault accounted for more than 2,700 convictions.

(Annapolis, MD) – A second victim involved in the Anne Arundel County fatal crash today has succumbed to his injuries after being hit head-on while traveling Route 50 earlier today.

The second deceased victim is identified as Robert Skidmore, 66, of Cape St. Clair, Maryland. He was pronounced deceased by hospital personnel at Shock Trauma. Skidmore was driving a silver 2016 Mercedes SUV eastbound on Route 50 when he was hit head on by a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction.

Laura Ashley Murphy, 22, of Salisbury, was the driver of the black 2017 Volkswagen Tiguan involved in the crash. She was pronounced deceased at the scene. For unknown reasons at this time, Murphy was driving westbound in the eastbound lanes of Route 50 in Annapolis.

The other passenger in Murphy’s vehicle was her son, a 14-month old infant. He was flown by State Police medevac to Johns Hopkins where he is currently receiving medical treatment for injuries sustained in the crash.

The abortion provider also suggests clergy perform public blessings of abortion clinics.

Soon after President Trump issued his executive order on "Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty," which includes potential "conscience protections" for those with religious objections to certain health insurance mandates, Planned Parenthood issued a press release noting that some "faith leaders" condemned the executive orders. Faith leaders who belong to Planned Parenthood's own "Clergy Advisory Board (CAB)."

These leaders fear that Trump's order will lead to "employers, schools, and other entities [refusing] to cover women's preventive health services, including birth control, in their insurance plans on the basis of religious or moral objection. The irony of citing religious freedom as a reason to prevent employers from choosing the type of insurance coverage they want to offer to employees is lost on the Clergy Advisory Board:

MAY 18-19-20-21, 2017

Get ready for one of the hottest hot rod shows on the East Coast, the 27thAnnual Cruisin Ocean City, as it returns to the beachside resort town of Ocean City Maryland, May 18-19-20-21. This nationally recognized event attracts more than 3,500 customs, hot rods, street machines, classics and more from over 20 states plus Canada. The 27thAnnual Cruisin will have more than 10,000 event participants taking part in various car shows at the Convention Center on 40thStreet, the downtown Inlet parking lot and various citywide locations.

Scheduled to appear at this year’s Cruisin, special guestErik Estrada,best known for his role as Officer Frank Poncherello on the classic tv show “CHiPs”. Erik will be at the event Friday inside the OC Convention Center 11-4, Saturday at the Inlet 11-4 and Sunday at the Inlet 11-1 signing autographs and posing for pictures. Also joining the fun, from the hit tv show“Counting Cars”meetKevin Mack! Kevin will be meeting and greeting fans, Friday at the Inlet 11-4 and Saturday inside the OC Convention Center 11-4. Stop by to take a pic and talk about all the fun they have on the show. Plus see the Flintstone Mobile Show Car that will be on display Friday and Saturday inside the OC Convention Center. Additional entertainment includes live music, BINGO, the giant Jukebox, Seaside Jimmy, Cruisin Gold Deejay and much more.

Thursday night be sure to check outUnder the Streetlamp, as they will be rockin the stage of the Ocean City Performing Arts Center (located inside the OC Convention Center)! This show features stars from the Hit Broadway show “Jersey Boys!” Under the Streetlamp delivers an electrifying evening of classics from the American Radio songbook, bringing their unique blend of tight harmonies and slick dance moves to your favorite Doo Wop, Motown and old time Rock n’ Roll hits. This is a show you won’t want to miss! The show starts at 8pm. Tickets can be purchased by calling or visiting the Ocean City Box Office 1-800-OC-OCEAN or Ticketmaster 1-800-551-SEAT. For more information on this concert or any upcoming concerts visitwww.oceancityconcerts.com.

It seems the politically correct crowd — those individuals offended by the mere act of breathing by someone who has a different point of view — is always on the prowl for the next holiday, activity, or phrase they’d like to destroy.

A pro-transgender writer for the Toronto Star has a real issue with the “painful” celebration of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, and has offered a remedy for the situation: Guardian’s Day.

The story behind the variety of strawberry we enjoy nowadays is a global affair that stretches across two centuries and three continents.

Way back in the 1500s, some French explorer noticed that the wild strawberries of Virginia had bigger fruits and brighter color than their European counterparts.

He brought some back to Europe and farmers started playing around with them. But it wasn’t until two centuries after that, that the modern strawberry began to take shape. This was thanks to another Frenchman, who noted while down in South America that the strawberries in Chile were even bigger and redder than the ones from Virginia.

Problem was, farmers couldn’t seem to get these Chilean strawberries to reproduce in France. They didn’t realize that the samples were all females and needed a little help to spur the reproductive process along. An accident solved the problem—some farmer over there planted some Virginia strawberries close enough to some Chile strawberries, and that got the romantic ball rolling.

Two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton officially launched a new organization on Monday, “Onward Together,” with the stated goal of “advancing the vision that earned nearly 66 million votes in the last election.”

Put more bluntly, the group’s mission is to advance Clinton’s agenda, which was unable to defeat Donald Trump.

But buried on the donation page is this nugget:

Contributions or gifts to Onward Together, a 501(c)(4) organization, are not tax deductible as charitable contributions or as business deductions.

By listing itself as a 501(c)(4), Clinton is able to take so-called “dark money,” or money from donors who legally do not have to be disclosed, in unlimited amounts.

One of Britain’s top private schools is bringing in ‘gender-neutral’ uniforms that would allow boys to wear skirts, as teachers report growing numbers of children ‘questioning their gender identity’.

The move by Highgate School in north London comes as activist pupils at schools across the country are demanding ‘gender-neutral’ bathroom facilities, a ban on terms they deem ‘sexist’, and for teachers to use gender-neutral pronouns such as “they”.

“This generation is really questioning being binary in the way we look at things,” headteacher Adam Pettitt told The Sunday Times.

The Catholic archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas, is ending his archdiocese’s association with the Girl Scouts, citing the organization’s increased secularization and the promotion of values that are inconsistent with the Gospel.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann recently announced that the parishes in his archdiocese would no longer host the Girl Scouts, but would, instead begin chartering the American Heritage Girls (AHG), an organization that promotes Christian values as it also introduces girls to skill-building in all areas of life.

In an interview with Crux, Naumann observed that his decision to break ties with the Girl Scouts is a sign of a cultural trend.

“We face an increasingly hostile secular culture, which really is promoting things very different from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our vision of the human person, the dignity of the human person,” he explained. “We’re going to have to be much more vigilant as Christians and as Catholics about with whom we partner and who we invite in, particularly with regard to the formation of our young people.”

In a statement earlier this month, the archbishop noted that he has studied the concern about the Girl Scouts for a number of years, engaging in discussions with parents, scouts, pastors, and Girl Scouts representatives. He states the “disturbing content in materials and resources” created and distributed by the national Girl Scouts organization, and discovered by his youth ministry staff, was a primary factor in his final decision.

The assistant principal of a Pennsylvania high school has resigned after a video of him berating pro-life student activists went viral.

Assistant principal Zach Ruff, who was filmed berating and cursing at 16-year-old pro-life activists, resigned the day after a petition defending Ruff circulated online with more than 50,000 signatures.

Ruff was placed on administrative leave on April 21 after the video of his interaction with the young activists went viral. “You can go to hell where they are too,” he said pointing at pictures of aborted children. “They’re not children! They’re cells!”

“Listen here, son, alright? I am as gay as the day is long, and twice as sunny. I don’t give a fuck what you think Jesus tells me about what I should and should not be doing,” Ruff barked.

“You’re acting very immaturely. I’m 16 and you’re yelling at me,” one of the teens responded.

Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst behind one of the largest classified information leaks in US history, was released from military prison early Wednesday morning, an Army spokeswoman said.

She was released from United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas around 3 a.m. ET, Lt. Col. Jennifer Johnson told CNN.

Amnesty International, which had campaigned for Manning's release, was quick to applaud the decision.

"While we celebrate her freedom, we will continue to call for an independent investigation into the potential human rights violations she exposed, and for protections to be put in place to ensure whistleblowers like Chelsea are never again subjected to such appalling treatment," a statement said.

Alumni from the University of Pennsylvania are planning to protest one the school’s most notable graduates by wearing “Denounce Trump” buttons at their upcoming reunion.

“More than a dozen” graduates of the University of Pennsylvania class of 1967, from which President Trump graduated in 1968, will be wearing “Denounce Trump” buttons at their upcoming reunion, according to a story in The Daily Pennsylvania.

Over the next three days, more than a dozen attendees of the 1967 class reunion and graduation ceremony will wear buttons calling upon Penn to “Denounce Trump,” who graduated from Wharton in 1968.

Graduate Michael Sales, who created a Facebook group for the Class of 1967, started an initiative within the class to “disavow the intolerant views” of Trump.

“How do you not discuss the tangerine-headed elephant in the room?” Sales wrote.

BALTIMORE, Md. - He's taken on the role of Sheriff, Sherlock, and international spy. Now, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot portrays a new character in the agency's annual short video publicizing the Maryland unclaimed property list.

“We call it 'The Franchot Zone' where we send you money rather than you send us money,” said Franchot.

The unclaimed property comes from banks or financial organizations that have been holding onto an individual's valuables. After three years of inactivity or not being able to reach the account holder, the company then relinquishes the property to the Maryland Comptroller.

The lawyer representing the State of Hawaii in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today has stated the collection of data with regards honor killings should be removed from President Trump’s Executive Order in order to “pass constitutional muster”.

In his arguments, Neal Katyal stated today that the collection of such data as outlined by theExecutive Order 13780 contravenes the Establishment Clause, in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”.

In doing so, Katyal appears to be making the case that honor killings — murder committed in the name of restoring a family’s dignity following discouraged behaviour within fundamentalist homes — is in itself Islamic.

Some dogs stare out the window, others keep watch in their backyard, but this golden retriever isn't like most dogs — he prefers the roof.

The 5-year-old dog named Huckleberry can be spotted several times a day casually sitting on his family's rooftop. You can't miss him.

"He likes to sit up there and watch the cars and passersby," the dog's owner, Allie Lindenmuth, told CBS News. "He loves to bark and say hello!"

When Lindenmuth and her husband, Justin, moved into their house in Austin, Texas, about four and a half years ago, they noticed there was only about a 3-foot clearance between a hill in their backyard and the roof. They wondered if their intelligent puppy would ever figure it out.

It all fits together — patriarchal oppression, catastrophic climate change, our shameful unwillingness to abort enough babies. I see it now, with help from feminist icon Gloria Steinem:

“Listen, what causes climate deprivation is population,” she said. “If we had not been systematically forcing women to have children they don’t want or can’t care for over the 500 years of patriarchy, we wouldn’t have the climate problems that we have. That’s the fundamental cause of climate change.”

According to liberal dogma, climate change is bad and caused by people. The fewer people, the less climate change. The more abortions, the fewer people. By this simple logic, killing babies is revealed to be morally righteous.

Steinem went on to gibber that allowing babies to live is oppressive “because women are the major agricultural workers in the world, and also the carriers of water and the feeders of families and so on” and so bringing more human life into the world is “a disproportionate burden.”

The senior Justice Department official at the center of the political storm surrounding James Comey’s firing at the FBI spoke out on the controversy Monday night, dismissing “unsolicited” concerns about his personal reputation and saying his main interest is defending the Constitution.

"Many people have offered me unsolicited advice over the past few days about what I should do to promote my personal reputation," Rosenstein reportedly said.

According to the report, he added, "I took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. There is nothing in that oath about my reputation. If you ask me, one of the main problems in Washington, D.C., is everybody is so busy running around trying to protect their reputation instead of protecting the republic, which is what they're supposed to be doing."More here

While NBC and CNN joined the rest of the media in rushing to condemn the Trump White House over an UNCONFIRMED Washington Post report that the President inadvertently shared classified information with Russian officials, guests on both networks provided important context that the Obama administration intentionally shared classified intelligence with Russia less than a year ago.

Appearing on Friday’s NBC Today, security analyst Juan Zarate warned: “The problem is the Russians aren’t trustworthy. The Russians have proven that when we’ve provided information in the past, they’ve used it against us.” He then proceeded to explain how former President Obama gave the Russians classified information just months ago:

"Back in the summer of 2016, the Obama administration provided some information to the Russians about some of the things happening on the ground. Guess what happened? The Russians then attacked some of those sites of our allies, our proxies that we were working with. And that’s a problem."

Meanwhile, over on CNN’s New Day, political analyst Jeffrey Lord provided some “perspective” to anchor Chris Cuomo:

"The only thing I would say here, Chris is perspective. Perspective is all. I'm holding two headlines from the Washington Post, one of May 25th, 2014, “White House mistakenly identifies CIA chief in Afghanistan.” The Obama administration put the name of the CIA on the press release, exposed him and endangered his life. The second one, June 30, 2016, “U.S. Offers to share Syrian intelligence on terrorist with Russia,” which is to say the Obama administration wanted to give their intelligence to the Russians. All I'm saying here is there’s perspective. We need to find out the facts and let’s have perspective."

Incidentally, notice that the 2014 story was from the same Post reporter, Greg Miller, who wrote Monday's article.

In sharp contrast to the wall-to-wall media coverage of the Trump story, Obama offering to share intel with Russia was greeted with yawns from the press.More here

Conservatives and Tea Party members never really got any closure regarding the IRS persecution of groups based on their political leanings. In fact, we were basically told “Yeah there’s wrong-doing, but you’ll have to get over it because we’re more powerful than you.”

Now lawmakers are requesting Attorney General Jeff Sessions reopen the investigation into the IRS to see if there’s anything that can be done to hold responsible the people abusing their position.

CHAPPAQUA — Hillary Clinton surrendered to federal authorities on Tuesday after a nine-hour standoff involving a series of tense negotiations and a brief exchange of gunfire with Kazakh mercenaries. The former secretary of state was transferred to a federal prison facility in Cumberland, Md., where she will await trial on charges of corruption, racketeering, treason, voter fraud, planning the Benghazi attack, associating with perverts, and disseminating "fake news."

FBI Director Louie Gohmert praised the operation as "a victory for justice," hours after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a 612-page indictment against the failed presidential candidate at a press conference in Washington.

The FBI opened a formal investigation into Hillary Clinton's criminal deviance in early June, days after Gohmert was sworn in as successor to James Comey, the disgraced former director who was fired by the president in May. Comey's dismissal sparked protests across the country, as millions of angry voters took to the streets imploring President Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to imprison Hillary for her myriad crimes against the American people.

Many in the "fake news" media were stunned when Attorney General Sessions announced the indictment on Tuesday. During a subsequent briefing with Justice Department communications director Tomi Lahren, reporters broke down in tears and babbled hysterically about Hitler. Lahren mocked a failing New York Times correspondent who tried to disrupt the briefing by commandeering "the people's microphone" before being dragged off by federal agents.

It was the most highly-rated Justice Department briefing in history, according to President Trump.

In an unprecedented move, Hamburg authorities confiscated six residential units in the Hamm district near the city center.

A trustee appointed by the city is now renovating the properties and will rent them — against the will of the owner — to tenants chosen by the city. District spokeswoman Sorina Weiland said that all renovation costs will be billed to the owner of the properties.

Similar expropriation measures have been proposed in Berlin, the German capital, but abandoned because they were deemed unconstitutional.

Some Germans are asking what is next: Will authorities now limit the maximum amount of living space per person, and force those with large apartments to share them with strangers?

Authorities in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany, have begun confiscating private dwellings to ease a housing shortage— one that has been acutely exacerbated by Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow more than two million migrants into the country in recent years.

City officials have been seizing commercial properties and converting them into migrant shelters since late 2015, when Merkel opened German borders to hundreds of thousands of migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Now, however, the city is expropriating residential property units owned by private citizens.

In an unprecedented move, Hamburg authorities recently confiscated six residential units in the Hamm district near the city center. The units, which are owned by a private landlord, are in need of repair and have been vacant since 2012. A trustee appointed by the city is now renovating the properties and will rent them — against the will of the owner — to tenants chosen by the city. District spokeswoman Sorina Weiland said that all renovation costs will be billed to the owner of the properties.

The expropriation is authorized by the Hamburg Housing Protection Act (Hamburger Wohnraumschutzgesetz), a 1982 law that wasupdated by the city's Socialist government in May 2013 to enable the city to seize any residential property unit that has been vacant for more than four months.

The forced lease, the first of its kind in Germany, is said to be aimed at pressuring the owners of other vacant residences in the city to make them available for rent. Of the 700,000 rental units in Hamburg, somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 (less than one percent) are believed to be vacant, according an estimate by the Hamburg Senate.

ANNAPOLIS, MD — The Hogan-Rutherford administration today launched “Before It’s Too Late,” a new web portal designed to provide resources and raise public awareness of the rapid escalation of the evolving heroin, opioid, and fentanyl crisis in Maryland.

“For nearly three years, our administration has been focused on combating the heroin and opioid crisis from every angle, including prevention, treatment, and recovery," said Governor Larry Hogan. "This new web portal is another tool to raise awareness and provide critical resources to all Marylanders so that we can save thousands of lives, before it’s too late.”

The new website, BeforeItsTooLateMD.org, is a one-stop shop for individuals, families, educators, and health care professionals to get the educational resources they need to prevent this epidemic from spreading—because education goes hand-in-hand with prevention. This public awareness effort also includes a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter.

“Education and public awareness go hand-in-hand with prevention, and are an essential component of our efforts to turn the tide in this heroin and opioid crisis,” said Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford. "The Before It's Too Late portal will provide addicts, family members, educators, and health professionals with the resources they need to get help, understand the disease of addiction, and reduce stigma, in order to save lives."

The “Before It’s Too Late” tagline is derived from a PSA the governor released featuring actor Michael Kelly in March. The launch follows the Regional Opioid and Substance Abuse Summit, which featured Governor Hogan, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe as speakers, and the first-ever Maryland Heroin and Opioid Educational Forum for students at Westminster High School in Carroll County, hosted by Lt. Governor Rutherford.

In March, Governor Hogan declared a State of Emergency in response to the heroin, opioid, and fentanyl crisis ravaging communities in Maryland and across the country. This declaration activated the governor’s emergency management authority and enables increased and more rapid coordination between the state and local jurisdictions. The governor also announced $50 million in new funding to address the crisis, as well as the appointment of the governor’s senior emergency management advisor Clay Stamp to lead the Opioid Operational Command Center, which is mobilizing all available resources for effective prevention, treatment, and recovery.

OCEAN CITY – Kenny Rogers highlights a trio of new acts headed to Ocean City this year.

Tickets go on sale this week for shows by Kenny Rogers, The Highwaymen Live and The Ten Tenors. Bob Rothermel, who made the announcement for Special Event and TEAM Productions, said he wanted to share the news this week as visitors descended on the resort for Cruisin Ocean City.

“We’re having a lot of people come to town this weekend,” Rothermel said. “As producers of Cruisin, we want to show we’re not here for just this event, we’re here for many events. Years ago, we used to say come for the sun, stay for the stars. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do.”

Rogers will visit the resort Friday, Nov. 3 as part of his “Final World Tour.” Rothermel said he’s spent the last year trying to secure a date for the event.

RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — Caffeine caused the death of a 16-year-old student, according to Richland County Coroner Gary Watts.

Watts held a news conference Monday to discuss the results of an investigation into the death of Davis Allen Cripe, whodied April 26 at Palmetto Health Parkridge Hospital after collapsing in a classroom.

Watts said Cripe drank a large diet Mountain Dew, a cafe latte from McDonald's and an energy drink in the two-hour period before he collapsed.

"We lost Davis from a totally legal substance," Watts said. He said he determined Cripe died from a caffeine-induced cardiac event.

"It was so much caffeine at the time of his death, that it caused his arrhythmia," he said.

During a statement to reporters on Monday, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster stated Washington Post report that President Trump revealed highly classified information to Russia’s foreign minister is “false.”

McMaster said, “The story that came out tonight, as reported is false. The president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our two countries, including threats to civil aviation. At no time, at no time, were intelligence sources or methods discussed.. I was in the room, it didn’t happen.”

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up an appeal filed by the North Carolina Legislature in response to the three-judge panel striking down its state voter ID law and other election reforms.

No one should read anything substantive into this.

As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote Monday in a two-page supplement to the court’s refusal to accept the case for review, “[g]iven the blizzard of filings over who is and who is not authorized to seek review in this Court under North Carolina law, it is important to recall our frequent admonition that ‘[t]he denial of a writ of certiorari imports no expression of opinion upon the merits of the case.’”

In other words, the Supreme Court was not ruling here on whether the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' three-judge panel was correct in its assessment of the North Carolina law. (It wasn’t.)

In fact, the chief justice spends two pages talking about the procedural chaos in the case that seems to be the obvious reason for the court’s refusal.

It was private lawyers hired by the North Carolina Legislature that filed the petition for certiorari on behalf of the state asking for the Supreme Court’s review.

But the handling of the case changed dramatically after the November 2016 election, when a new, Democratic attorney general, Josh Stein, was elected.

Fans of the Tim Allen-starring sitcom Last Man Standing have threatened a boycott of ABC after the network cancelled the conservative-friendly series last week despite strong ratings and critical acclaim.

Last Man Standing ran for six seasons on ABC before being cancelled on Wednesday. The sitcom centered on Allen’s Mike Baxter, a blue-collar marketing director for a sporting goods store and his relationship with his wife Vanessa (Nancy Travis) and his three teenage daughters (Molly Ephraim, Kaitlyn Dever, and Amanda Fuller).

The show was one of the few (if not the only) on broadcast television to appeal to conservative, family-oriented audiences; taken together with Allen’s own political conservatism, some Last Man Standing fans have accused Disney-owned ABC of cancelling the show for political reasons, particularly because the series drew relatively strong ratings in its Friday night time slot.

Over the weekend, fans of the show took to social media to call for a boycott of the network..More

Chesapeake Bay crabbers will likely face some harvest restriction this season to protect future generations of the iconic crustacean, a move managers say is necessary because of the low population of juveniles.

Fishery managers for Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission all say they are considering shortening the season and imposing stricter limits on the harvest of female crabs. They are not proposing changes in male crab catches.

News of harvest cuts surprised some crabbers at Maryland’s Blue Crab Industry Advisory Committee last week. The latest winter dredge survey results released in April showed the highest number of female crabs in the 28-year history of the annual count. Female crabs clocked in at 254 million, a 31 percent increase over last year.

Reports that Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Rich was a source for WikiLeaks before his murder leaves us with even more unanswered questions surrounding the case.

1. If Rich was murdered in a robbery gone wrong, why was his wallet, watch, and phone left behind?

Following Rich’s July 2016 death in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington D.C., police officers claimed that it was likely the DNC staffer was shot during a robbery gone wrong.

This doesn’t explain, however, why Rich was found to still be in possession of all of his personal items, including wallet, watch, and mobile phone, which are often the primary targets during a street robbery.

“There had been a struggle. His hands were bruised, his knees are bruised, his face is bruised, and yet he had two shots to his back, and yet they never took anything,” said Rich’s girlfriend to NBC News. “They didn’t finish robbing him, they just took his life.”

2. Why hasn’t the DNC offered a reward for information related to his murder?More here

Vice-Chairman Kris Kobach of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, who is also Secretary of State for Kansas, joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Monday’s Breitbart News Daily to discuss voter fraud and border security.

“The commission is going to be about a dozen people, bipartisan, five of them current or former Secretaries of State,” Kobach said. “What it’s going to do is take a nationwide look at the problem of voter fraud. There’s a lot of debate around the subject of voter fraud, and as someone who has been Secretary of State in a state where we introduced photo ID as well as proof of citizenship, and security for mail-in ballots – which is oftentimes a source of fraud or a type of fraud that occurs – we’re going to look at it from a nationwide perspective.”

“I’ve amassed a lot of data at the state level in Kansas, but there really hasn’t ever been an effort by a federal entity to measure the statistics and the facts nationwide and see what the numbers look like,” he noted.

Kobach recalled that Kansas and other states asked the Obama administration to provide lists of aliens on legal visas to check against voter rolls, so they could weed out ineligible voters.

“The federal government has consistently said no, under the Obama administration."More